Some bad Covid news

The best vaccines we have against Covid-19 — the mRNA shots from Pfizer and Moderna — only provide about six months protection from severe illness. (Protection against contracting Covid period begins to wane after about a month.) That’s based on data from 7 million unvaccinated and vaccinated people conducted by Penn State researchers.

The hope had been that, while total protection (i.e., antibodies) might wear off quickly, the vaccines would prevent serious disease for a heck of a lot longer.

Could Alzheimer’s start somewhere else?

Old idea: Alzheimer’s starts when amyloid beta plaques begin to build up outside brain cells.

New idea: The breakdown starts inside the cells. Neuroscientists from NYU found that the problem starts when lysosomes (i.e., the garbage collectors) in mouse-brain cells stopped working well: Instead of destroying the waste, the lysosomes fused with the autophagic vacuoles that contain it — as if your teenager fused with your trash bags instead of taking them to the curb*.

These creepy lysosome/vacuole … things then “pooled together in ‘flower-like’ patterns, bulging out from the cells’ outer membranes and massing around each cell’s nucleus” while amyloid beta filaments began to form.

Bottom line, they say: This “lysosomal dysfunction” might be a better avenue for treatment research.

Stop and smell the non-opioids

Aromatherapy (University of Pittsburgh anesthesiologists found) “reduces post-surgical opioid use by half in hip replacement patients.”

But not all patients — specifically, the really anxious ones. Because the scent of lavender and peppermint doesn’t reduce pain directly. Instead, the smell reduces anxiety, depression, and “catastrophizing,” all of which can increase pain. Calm the patient, cut the pain.

And hey, you can’t argue with the results:

Total opioid use in the first 48 hours after surgery was 50% lower in the aromatherapy group than in the placebo group.

Grandma: You’re not as healthy as you think

“Too much self-confidence can endanger health,” say Austrian researchers.

[I]ndividuals who overestimate their health visit the doctor 17.0% less often than those who correctly assess their health, which is crucial for preventive care.

Pharma’s story debunked — again

The pharmaceutical companies’ have maintained that they need to charge Americans high prices for drugs to pay for research and development (either directly or because their high profits attract investment).

Annnnd that’s been debunked. Again. This time by the Brookings Institution.

In a detailed analysis of finances, it found that pharma R&D spending really doesn’t lead to new drugs — most innovation these days comes from smaller companies that are bought by the big ones.

But the biggest finding is that revenue growth doesn’t mean R&D growth. Instead, the money goes to (wait for it) investor payout and stock buybacks.

Between 2000 and 2018, net revenues among the 27 [largest pharmaceutical] companies grew over 240% from $300 billion to almost $725 billion. During that same time period, R&D spending as a percentage of net sales grew modestly from 12% to 17%. Investor payouts and stock buybacks, however, grew from $30 billion (10% of net sales) to $146 billion (20% of net sales).

Oh, and the idea that lower profits would mean fewer new drugs? Turns out that most of the “new” drugs being developed are just variations on the themes: “new indications to labels, developing new formulations, changing dosage strengths, and new combinations of existing drugs.”

ICYMI

The air up there

Tall people have a bunch of advantages over hobbits, dwarves, pixies, and Nac Mac Feegle of the world — better views of parades comes to mind — but there’s a price to pay, healthwise.

A big big big review (“multi-population phenome-wide association study”) of more than 250,000 veterans found that taller people are at greater risk for atrial fibrillation (but lower risk for coronary heart disease), varicose veins, leg and foot ulcers, skin and bone infection, and peripheral neuropathy. Taller women are more likely to have asthma.

Twist: It’s not just about physical size causing problems directly. In some cases it’s indirect — the same genes that code for tallness also increase the disease risk.

Now ear this

A woman born with a deformed ear has had it surgically replaced with one that was 3-D printed using her own cells.

Let that sink in: They printed her an ear using human cells. It will grow and attach, and it won’t be rejected because it’s made from her own cells.

With more research the technology could be used to make many other replacement body parts, including spinal discs, noses, knee menisci, rotator cuffs and reconstructive tissue for lumpectomies. Further down the road […] 3-D printing could even produce far more complex vital organs, like livers, kidneys and pancreases.

You probably shouldn’t tell your older patients this

In the latest twist on the “Alcohol, good or bad?” story, we have a study out of Germany of people over 60. It found not only do older people who drink “report having a better quality of life before and after surgery” — it’s the people who drink a lot who report the best outcomes. We’re talking “potentially unhealthy alcohol intake.”

Before surgery, those who drank more reported better overall health, less pain or discomfort, and were more likely to perform self-care […] After surgery those who drank more reported significantly better mobility, self-care, and usual activities.

“This is an exciting topic for further studies.”

Covid patients need caffeine

Yesterday we told you how drinking 2-3 cups of coffee a day reduces the risk of acute kidney injury. Today we’re telling you that Aussie researchers found that “millions of COVID-19 patients may have undiagnosed acute kidney injury.”

Existing data indicates approximately 20 per cent of patients admitted to hospital with Covid-19 develop AKI, rising to roughly 40 per cent for those in intensive care.

Well that’s convenient.

Uh-oh